Due to a recent article I am resurrecting this issue.
It is no wonder that people outside the Quality field consider us nuts. We often use vernacular that is strange to the outsider. The use of “correction”, “corrective action” and “preventive action is a good example.
The March 2004 Quality Digest magazine has an article entitled “Correct Me if I’m Wrong” (pg. 56) by Dan Nelson (which I will because he is). A couple of quotes are as follows:
So correcting something is not corrective action, and preventing something is not preventive action. That’s enough to drive anyone mad.
Webster’s 10th ed. defines things this way: Correct = “To make or set right”, and Prevent = “To meet or satisfy in advance… to keep from happening or existing”.
Prevent me if I’m wrong, but would not correcting an error, say reworking a part, be a CORRECTIVE action, albeit interim or short term? And is not preventing a recurrence, say adding a mistake-proofing mechanism, a PREVENTIVE action, even though it is a long term solution to an existing concern?
I would suppose normal people would think so. But not us Quality Professionals!
The way we do it here follows the
8D thinking of years ago. We have short term and long term corrective actions. The long term is generally preventive in nature and we may even state it as such. We save the ISO required/defined “preventive actions” for process improvements, suggestions, and FMEAs.
Notice too that the word is “preventive”, not “preventative” (some people like that extra syllable, “ta”). So anyway, ta ta for now. I won’t try to correct you from replying – or is that, prevent you – I always get that mixed up.
